Speaker 1: Back in high school, I signed up for door Dash
just to see if it was as good as they
advertised it. Initially, though, it took me a whole month
to finally get myself to take on my first delivery,
But from then on I did a couple deliveries a
day and was really happy with the results. A couple
months after that, I quit my grocery job and started
dashing every day after school and even on most weekends.
On this night, I was working extra late because it
was a holiday weekend. I was driving from eight pm
until two am, pretty much just going back and forth
from the twenty four to seven McDonald's. A little past two,
I picked up another McDonald's order and went en route
to the customer. It was set to be delivered at
some sort of a warehouse, and in the notes it
said to go in through the side doors and drop
it off at the front desk. When I got there,
I pulled into this huge parking lot. It was mostly empty,
only having a few semi trucks in it. The building
was definitely an old warehouse, though, being just a large
rectangle with a few windows and a single door at
the front. I checked one more time to make sure
I had it right to deliver it through the side door.
Then pulled around to the side and part the side
door was one of those really heavy metal doors with
a small glass window. I looked through that tiny window
and didn't see anything but a small and dark entrance room,
but the glare from my car's headlights made the window
reflective and hard to see through. I swung it open
and was immediately taken back. It was just as dark
as it seemed through the window, and it only had
a tiny wall light in the corner that was more
of a dim safety light. There was no front desk,
so I walked around the corner and stood at the
end of a long, unlit corridor. I knew that most
places that have night shift workers don't keep on the
unnecessary lights, but this seemed excessive. I couldn't even see
the end of the hallway, so if I were to
walk down there, I would be walking into complete darkness.
I took my phone out and checked now for a
third time to see if I'd gone to the wrong
place or through the wrong door. Everything seemed right, but
there wasn't any way I was going to walk through
that hallway, And the more I thought about it, the
more I realized how quiet the whole building was. No
machinery moving, were people talking, Not a sound at all.
I decided to call the customer. I clicked on their
name and had to dial the number, and just a
moment later I heard a phone ring echo from the
other end of the hallway. After another few seconds, it
rang again, but it was closer and louder this time.
I stared into this empty corridor and could barely make
out the faint glow of someone's phone. Hey, I got
an order here from door dash. I'm gonna leave it
right here for you, I said, setting the bag down
in front of me. The figure of a large man
started to come out of the dark corridor, but they
didn't say anything. I waited another second, but as they
got closer, it just really seemed unnerving the way they
were walking so fast and not speaking. I had this
feeling like someone was gonna jump out behind me or something,
and overall was a little freaked out. I turned around
and walked quickly out of the door and back to
my car. A few moments later, I saw some movement
from behind the small glass window on the door just
before I pulled away. That whole thing gave me chills
and had me call it a night and go straight home.
In the end, I chose to believe it was just
a weird situation all around, but nothing really happened, so
I blew it off. A couple days would go by,
and on Monday evening, while I was driving again, I
got a strange call. It was from the police department.
What happened next was more complicated than it had to be,
but basically they questioned me about why I was at
that specific warehouse at two thirty a m. On Saturday morning.
Apparently they had security footage of my car pulling up.
After explaining I was just a DoorDash driver and I
proved it with the delivery receipt, they told me what
was going on. They said that the workers came back
from their holiday weekend where the warehouse was not in operation,
and found a door dash delivery sitting in the middle
of the hallway. Whoever was there had broken in and
ordered with a fake account, which is all scary in
its own right, but the creepiest part is that they
didn't even take the bag of food. It's pretty obvious
that they were looking for something else. I don't know
what they wanted from me, but I can only assume
that if I had stayed and waited for the man,
something terrible.
Speaker 2: Would have happened.
Speaker 1: When this happened, I was twenty three and worked full
time at a pizza shop in my local area. I'm
not sure if things were going on before this, but
as far as I know, everything started and ended on
this one night. Me and my best friend Tim worked
the night shifts at this pizza place. It was a
real small shop, having just three or four tables inside
because we specialized in delivery and take out. Both me
and Tim got our there while we were in college,
but just never left. Being in a quiet rural town too,
the job wasn't too much work, never had busy days, really,
just a steady flow of orders sometimes. On this night,
there was a light storm outside and in return business
was slow. There were a few orders here and there,
but overall we didn't have much to do. By ten pm,
Tim suggested we started cleaning up the place and maybe
even clocking out fifteen minutes early. I went with it,
grabbing some rags to wipe the tables with. When the
phone at the front desk rang I picked up after
a few rings.
Speaker 2: How can we help you today? Hello.
Speaker 1: I waited another five seconds before putting the phone down
and shaking my head. Just some prank call, I thought.
I went back to scrubbing the tables, but at the
front of the store I saw a glare coming from
the window. There was a car parked a few spots back.
I couldn't see too well through the window in the rain,
but there was definitely a light on in the car,
like a cell phone or something. The pizza shop was
on an individual lot and there were no other cars,
so that was the only reason I noticed them. A
moment later, the phone rang again. Tim was closer, so
he picked up. This time, I could hear someone's muffled
voice coming from the phone, and after a short talk,
Tim hung up. At the same time, the light in
the car turned off and they drove away. I told
Tim what I saw and how it was a little weird,
but he shrugged and said it was just some old
man who was ordering a pizza for delivery. I looked
back at the now empty parking lot. It wouldn't make
much sense for someone to order a pizza for delivery
from right outside the shop, so I figured Tim was
right and it was nothing. He started making the pizza
while I continued cleaning. Ten minutes later, Tim boxed it
up and handed it off to me to deliver. I
ran through the rain to my car, then pulled up
the address on my phone eleven minutes away. Not too bad.
I pulled out and started making my way there. The
roads were dead, nobody out at all. Google Maps took
me down to a neighborhood full of large homes, then
had me turned down a long driveway that led to
a cul de sac where there were three more driveways,
each leading to a different house. I went down the
one Maps told me to and pulled up next to
the home. It was one of those large, expensive houses,
but pretty old looking and not very modern at all.
I parked the car and double checked the address with
the house number, then picked up the pizza and ran
up to the front door.
Speaker 2: Hello pizza delivery.
Speaker 1: I took a step back and looked at the front
of the house. All of the lights were off. I
dialed Tim's cell and had him call the guy who ordered.
My phone buzzed a moment later, and Tim told me
that his call went straight to voicemail. I shook my
head in frustration and ran back through the rain to
my car and got in. I tossed the pizza on
the passenger seat and started backing out. This wasn't out
of the ordinary, getting fake orders or dead deliveries, but
it still annoyed me every time. When I got back,
Tim was cleaning and said there were no more orders,
so we were good to finish up and head out.
I tossed the pizza in the trash and started helping him.
Both of us were in the back cleaning the ovens
and wiping the prep counters when a sudden bang came
from the front of them building. We looked at each other,
then ran to the front. At first we didn't see anything,
but then Tim spotted a small crack on the door.
I walked over and opened it, and right outside was
a heavy rock big enough to throw and do some
damage with. I looked around, seeing the parking lot was
completely empty and nobody was nearby. Both of us were
really confused and kind of freaked out. We talked about
maybe calling the cops, but neither of us wanted to
deal with that right now. To put things in perspective,
it was ten minutes before we were off and if
we called, then we'd be here for another hour at least.
Speaker 2: The crack on the.
Speaker 1: Door wasn't too big, not really that noticeable, so we
chose to wait and just tell our manager the next
day instead. We quickly finished up with the cleaning and
left through the back door where our cars were part.
On the drive home, I rethought all the strange things
that happened, and it made me uneasy. I pulled into
my driveway and walked inside. It was late, so I
knew I had to get in bed soon, but I
wanted something to snack on first. I went to the
kitchen to see what I had, but before I even
opened the pantry, I heard a car splashed through the
puddles on the street outside my house. From the sound
of it, I could tell.
Speaker 2: It was parking.
Speaker 1: I walked over to my window and peeked outside, seeing
a car parked right in front of my driveway. It
only took me a second to realize it was the
same car I'd seen outside the pizza shop. A cold
rush went through me, and I stayed in the window
to see what they were doing. The car was still on,
but I couldn't see through their window. After a minute,
of no movement. I took out my phone and called Tim,
telling him that I think one of the customers followed
me home and was parked right outside my house.
Speaker 2: Are you serious, You need to call the cops.
Speaker 1: Something's not right, he said, urging me to hang up
and call the police immediately. I don't know why I
was so nervous to call the cops, but hearing Tim
say it made me feel better about it. I moved
away from the window and dialed nine one one. The
lady on the line said that they would have someone
on their way and that I should stay hidden and wait.
I heard a car door open and close, so I
quickly said okay and hung up. Looking back out the window,
a man was walking up my driveway. He was wearing
dark clothes, covering his whole body in a hood covering
his face. As he approached the house, I closed the
curtains by the window and waited. His footsteps came to
the front door. Then they continued across the front of
the house until they reached the outside of the window
and stopped. The sudden silence made the sound of the
rain increasingly louder. I felt like I was standing there
quietly for minutes before, I stepped forward and moved the
curtain an inch to the side, just enough to peek through.
The man's cold eyes stared back at me. I let
go of the curtain, and the man banged on the window.
I stood a few feet away, terrified to death, and
just as quick as it started, it ended. There was
no more banging, no footsteps, nothing. All that was left
was the sound of the raindrops clicking against the window.
Although I never heard the man leave, he was gone
when the police showed up, no car or man in sight.
I told them all that had happened from the middle
of my shift to the end of the night. They
looked at me like I was crazy, and part of
me felt crazy too. None of it made any sense,
and there didn't seem to be any motive for the
man to have done what he did. Honestly, because of that,
the whole night had me messed up for a while.
Going through something as senseless as that was really just
fucked with my head. I'm hoping that by sharing this
someone may be able to help me understand what happened
or why the man did what he did. It sounds odd,
but even now, when it gets really quiet, on rainy days,
there's an eerie feeling that rushes through me, bringing me back.
Speaker 2: To that night.
Speaker 1: I did deliveries for my parents' restaurant when I was
in high school. I had just turned sixteen and got
my driver's license, and my parents were always wanting to
start offering delivery. I didn't want to be a waiter
or work at the register, so driving sounded like a
good option. When this happened, I had been doing deliveries
for a few months, so I was pretty comfortable with it.
It was a Thursday, around eight pm, and my dad
gave me an order to deliver. I got my car,
which was actually my mom's SUV, then started the drive.
Google Maps said the house was twenty five minutes away.
Our town was small, so twenty five minutes away was
actually pretty far. As I drove, I started to recognize
the area as being on the edge of town, and
I still had ten minutes to go. I'd never been
this far out in this direction before, so I was
definitely paying attention and keeping my eyes open. I wasn't
scared per se, but just felt uncomfortable. The only houses
I was passing now were farmhouses far from the main road.
When the directions told me to turn. It was down
a long, unpaved path going straight to one of these farmhouses.
Now I was starting to get a little freaked. A
farmhouse this far out at night was probably the last
place I wanted to be, But I knew I was
probably just spooking myself and it was just a simple delivery.
I drove down to the end of the path, which
ended and just became a small grass field in front
of the house. It wasn't clear whether or not to
drive on the grass, so I just parked the car
there and got out. It was eerily quiet. All I
could hear were my footsteps on the grass.
Speaker 2: As I walked up to the house.
Speaker 1: The porch light was on, but no other lights were
on inside the house. I was looking over my shoulders
constantly and walked quickly. The longer I was out there,
the more uncomfortable I was. Just before I reached the porch,
I heard something. It sounded like it was coming from
the back yard behind the farmhouse, but it was loud,
like a wooden door opening. I stepped onto the porch
and dropped the bag on the doorstep, then rang the
doorbell and started rushing back to the car. I was
regretting how far I parked and wished I just drove
on the grass, and as I listened to the only
sound of my footsteps under me, I started to hear
more more footsteps running behind me in my direction. I
turned around and saw three men sprinting at me through
the grass. I tried to run back to my car,
but in seconds I was tackled to the ground.
Speaker 2: One of them held me down while.
Speaker 1: Another started taking everything from my pockets. I was yelling
and screaming for help, but I knew nobody could hear me.
It all happened really fast, and once they looted my pockets,
one of the men kicked me in the stomach and
they all ran and got in the car, turning around
and driving away. I got up and just watched the
headlights disappear on the long empty road. I had no phone,
then no way to get back. I didn't know what
else to do, then just start walking toward the road.
When I reached the road, I started walking down the
way I came. I had no way of telling time,
but I think I was walking for thirty to forty
minutes before a patrol car pulled up in front of me.
My parents had called for them to check on me
because I wasn't responding. To sum it up, the cops
found a small barn behind the farmhouse with another restaurant
delivery bag inside it. They think they tried to do
the same thing to someone before me, but probably missed
their chance or chickened out for some reason. Because there
were no other reports. The actual owners of the farmhouse
were out of town, so they had no involvement. My
phone was able to be tracked, though, and was found
thrown in a field off the side of the road
not too far away. The stolen car, however, took three
weeks to be located. It was found nearly four hundred
miles away and had been almost entirely emptied.
Speaker 2: This was almost a year ago.
Speaker 1: Now, and those three men that attacked me still have
yet to be identified. I was driving my delivery van
back from a small out of town delivery one night.
It was somewhere around eleven PM and it was raining
steadily outside. I didn't usually work this late, but every
once in a while there would need to be a
delivery made after store hours, so past ten p m.
The stores I delivered to are spread out so most
of the driving is on long highways with nothing interesting
the sea. As I went along the road, I saw
head lights up ahead. Although going the speed limit, I
caught up to them quickly. It was an old pick
up truck driving really slow in front of me. It
was as if they were scared of slipping on the
wet road, but they were going way too slow for
it to be practical. After a minute, I was getting
impatient and started looking for a chance to go around them.
I sped up a little bit, putting on my turn
signal so they knew what I was doing, But just
before I made my move, their truck suddenly lost control
and ran off the road. I slammed on my brakes
and pulled over. I stayed in my van looking out
the side window. They somehow barely missed a few trees,
but they were down a slope and likely stuck. Even
though it wasn't my fault at all, I felt really
bad and couldn't just leave them without at least calling
for help. I tried dialing nine one one, but there
was no signal at all. After a minute of not
seeing any movement by the truck, I got even more
nervous and got out of my van to check on them.
I walked down the side of the road through the
cold rain and carefully walked down the slope until I
reached the trees. The truck was wedged in some bushes,
but didn't seem to be too damaged. I approached the
driver's side door. The window was fogged over and I
couldn't see inside. I knocked, then opened the door. There
was a man sitting in the driver's seat, frantically trying
to get the truck to turn on.
Speaker 2: Hey are you okay? Did you want some help? I asked.
Speaker 1: He looked up at me, not saying a word for
a few seconds. Then he responded, can you give me
a ride? I told him I could take him to
the nearest gas station so he could call for help,
but that's as far as I could go. After some thinking,
he agreed to it. He stepped out, and I led
the way back to my van despite the rain. He
walked slowly and seemed to watch my every move. Every
time I looked back, he was just looking me in
the eyes until I turned my head away. It creeped
me out, but maybe he was just trying to make
sure that I wasn't creepy myself. We both got inside
and I started driving. I really didn't know how close
the nearest gas station was, but I was sure it
had to be at most fifty to sixty miles out.
The first few minutes, I tried to make some small talk,
but the man didn't really respond. I thought maybe his
head was hurting from the crash, but either way, it
made things really awkward. Every once in a while, I'd
look over and the man would be staring at me,
not smiling or frowning, just staring. I was starting to
wonder who this man was that I picked up. I
felt like any normal person would be grateful for my
help after getting stranded in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully,
not long into the drive, I saw the lights of
a small town up ahead, But as we got closer,
the man only started acting more strange. He was looking
around both inside the car and outside the windows. When
I pulled into the gas station, I parked the van
and asked if he needed help with anything else. He
didn't answer, but I felt tension, as if he was
contemplating something. I tried to break the silence.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm going to get back on the road.
Speaker 1: Then, The man took one more look around, then suddenly
forced his body over, shoving me against the door aggressively.
He started punching me as I opened the door and
tried to get out, but just then the passenger door
swung open and the man was pulled away from me.
I was trying to catch my breath, still not sure
what happened until I got out of the van. There
were two police cars and some officers holding the man down.
They denied giving me all the details, but apparently the
man was running away from a serious crime in a
stolen truck. Once an officer found the truck crashed on
the side of the road, they called in to have
some other officers stake out at the gas station and
wait for him. They didn't know he was with me
when I pulled in, but once they saw me getting attacked,
they jumped in to help. I don't know if he
attacked me in an effort to steal my van or
if it was because he saw the police cars and
thought I'd taken him in, but either way, it was
a horrifying experience. I knew the man was creepy, but
I had no idea how much danger I truly was. In.
If those police officers weren't waiting at the gas station,
I don't know if i'd be here right now. My
name is Tommy, and I started doing Uber eats last
year after I lost my part time retail job. I'd
seen their ads everywhere about how the job was so
relaxing and easy money, and some of my friends were
curious about the gig too, so I took one for
the team to figure out if all the hype was true.
Speaker 2: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: Driving around on a time crunch made the gig really stressful,
and sometimes it would be for just a couple bucks.
I was only a teenager and my only bills I
had to pay were my car payments and car insurance,
so making a ton of money wasn't necessary, but it
did feel like I was getting ripped off for the
amount of time and work it was. I pushed aside
getting a different job because I was lazy, but after
this happened, I quit right away. I picked up an
order from a Chinese place and was heading to the
customer's address. I don't remember it being a large order
or anything. I think it was just a normal small
order with a small payout. On the way to their address.
I got a text and the Uber Eats app it
was my customer asking where I was. Then another text
came in telling me to hurry up. I was driving,
so I couldn't respond, but I was just confused and
honestly a little annoyed. I just picked up the order
a couple minutes prior, so it wasn't like I was
running later anything. I shrugged it off and thought it
was just a mistake on their part. The address wasn't far,
only about ten minutes. It was in the less well
off neighborhood in my town, though, with pretty old and
small houses. It's actually funny though, because the customers in smaller,
cheaper houses usually tipped more.
Speaker 2: Than the rich people.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I pulled up next to their driveway and got
out of my car holding their bag of food. What
caught my attention as I walked up their driveway was
that the house had all of its lights off. It
wasn't the most scary thing in the world, but it
was something I took note of. When I got up
to the front door, I knocked quickly and took my
phone out to take the picture of it on the porch.
But just as I snapped the photo. Hey, a man
yelled from my left, standing by the corner of the house.
I jumped, then awkwardly said hi. He started walking toward me,
taking a key out of his pocket.
Speaker 2: I don't know what took you so fucking long.
Speaker 1: He walked right in front of me and held the
single key up and unlocked the front door. His attitude
had me in disbelief. I didn't know what to do
or say, so I just stood there like an idiot.
Come here, I need your help. Since you took your
time driving, it'll be quick. He waited by the door,
holding it open.
Speaker 2: Uh no, I'm okay. I should really get back to work.
Speaker 1: The man looked angry and took a step toward me,
reaching out like he was trying to grab me. I
jolted my shoulder back to avoid his hand, then backed
up and walked away from the porch, and just as
I got to the driveway, bright headlights flashed over me.
The man by the door ran outside and around the house,
leaving the front door open. As the car pulled up
the driveway, it turned out to be the homeowners returning
from dinner. The man I met at the door didn't
live there, and the homeowners had no idea who he
was or how he had gotten a key to their house.
We called the police and explained the situation to them.
Knowing everything now though it made more sense why the
man wanted me to rush to the house. He probably
knew that the homeowners could be back at any minute,
and he wanted to have enough time to do whatever
it was he was going to do to me before
they got back. I still don't have any answers for
what happened that night or what was going to happen,
and I don't think I ever will. But I have
stopped doing delivery. I drive for Postmates three to four
days a week, depending on.
Speaker 2: My other work schedule.
Speaker 1: Delivery driving is my relaxing side job that I do
to help pay for extra things I want, like vacations
or clothes, while my other job pays for my more
necessary bills like rent. So I never take delivery driving
too seriously. I just go about it, and if I
don't end up making a lot of money one.
Speaker 2: Night, it's no big deal.
Speaker 1: On this day, I started right when I got out
of work around eight. By ten, I had actually made
a decent amount of cash, more than most nights. Although
I'd usually stop around this time, why call it quits
when I was doing well, I decided to keep going
until I either got too tired or the orders stopped
coming in. I accepted the next door or and continued
to the restaurant. It was a medium sized order from
Wendy's with a regular tip, nothing uncommon. I drove through
and picked it up, then clicked start Route on my
phone to give me directions to the customer's house. Except
it wasn't to a house. It was a GPS location
set near a grocery store fifteen minutes away. I'd had
plenty of deliveries ordered to grocery stores or other places
of work from the employees, but it was only odd
because they didn't put the store as the address. They
used an exact location instead. Anyway, I started the drive
up there. When I got to the parking lot by
the grocery store, I noticed it was empty. I pulled
right up to the front and parked, then got out.
Speaker 2: With the food.
Speaker 1: I took a look around, but was pretty sure the
store was closed. I texted the customer, letting them know
I was at the store. They replied right away, saying
they were around the building in the back and that
I should see them right when I rounded the corner.
I was definitely skeptical, but I got back in my
car and drove around the store. There didn't seem to
be anything there, just a couple parked cars in the
far back by one of the other stores. I stopped
and looked, but still didn't see anyone. This was when
I started to get really uneasy feeling. I was thinking
this may not be worth it, and put the car
back in drive. But then my phone started buzzing.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're coming up right now.
Speaker 1: Be there in just a minute, a man said, hanging
up right after. I looked around again, feeling even more uncomfortable.
Something just wasn't sitting right with me. I made a
short u turn and started to go back the way
I came until someone ran in front of my car
holding their hands out stop motion. I braked and they
came up to my window.
Speaker 2: Hey, you have my order.
Speaker 1: I grabbed the bag and rolled down the window, handing
it to him, but he didn't take it. I felt
dumb holding the bag out while he just looked at me.
Then I heard a quiet footstep from the other side
of the car before the back door suddenly swung open.
I dropped the bag outside the window and floored it
as the guy by my window yelled at me to stop.
I guess whoever was at the back door had jumped
into my car. As I pulled away. He reached forward
trying to shift my car into park, but after failing
a few times, he jumped out of the moving car
onto the pavement. I saw him get up and both
of them running away as I turned the corner and
got out of there. The police were of no help,
saying they would do what they could, but never giving
me any updates. I was stupid to have fallen for
their trap, but I don't think I was the only
one doing some research. Just two weeks before my incident,
a delivery driver went missing during an active delivery in
a nearby town. There were no leads on what happened,
as the driver's car was never found either. I think
this might have been those same two men doing something
terrible that I can't even begin to imagine. I was
a delivery driver for Pizza Hut during college. A bunch
of my buddies from school also worked there, so it
was laid back and sometimes even fun. It would get
really busy with deliveries up until seven to eight o'clock.
Then it would have a sudden drop off in orders.
Our replace accepted delivery orders until eleven that would only
accept pick up orders until twelve. It was a Saturday night,
so it was busier than most other days, but after
nine thirty there were no more orders. We had someone
pick up an order round ten fifteen, but we had
nothing else until ten fifty, when the phone started.
Speaker 2: Ringing, Hello, this is pizza hut.
Speaker 1: I waited for a second. I could hear light breathing
on the other side, but they weren't responding Hello. Finally
a woman started speaking. She was talking quietly and had
a shaky voice. She asked for a small pepperoni pizza
to be delivered.
Speaker 2: To her address.
Speaker 1: I said okay, and just before I hung up, something
in me made me ask if she was okay. There
was just something off about the way she was talking.
She said she was just fine and hung up. I
sent the order through and fifteen minutes later I got
on the road. The house was a couple blocks away
and there were no other cars out, so I got
there in just a few minutes. As I drove up
their driveway and parked. I saw a heavy light coming
from around the garage where the front door was. I
got the pizza on the receipt ready, and as I
looked back, I saw the light constantly going in and out,
like someone was walking in front of it. I rounded
the garage and realized the light was coming from inside
the house, shining out the open front door. I stepped
onto the porch, and before I even reached the door,
I heard footsteps rushing down some stairs inside. Then a
man came into the doorway. He was a tall, heavy set,
bald man, but what was really weird was that he
was completely out of breath. He was taking big, exu
fasted breaths and had sweat dripping from his head. Sure
he could have just been working out, but the expression
on his face just made it all the more unnerving.
He looked angry and frustrated, like he didn't want me
to be there. I don't think I've ever seen someone
that unhappy that their pizza arrived. I asked him if
the order was correct, since he obviously wasn't the one
who placed it, which then made me think back to
the woman on the phone putting everything together. Made for
an uncomfortable possible scenario in my head. I said the
total and handed the man the receipt.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I need my wallet, he.
Speaker 1: Said, walking down the hall toward what I assumed was
the kitchen. As I waited for a moment, I heard
a quiet sound coming from inside the house upstairs. It
was a dull thump, like someone was hitting the wall.
I heard it again, louder this time, and seconds later,
the man came rushing down the hallway, grabbing the box
from my hands and throwing cash at me, then slammed
the door in my face. I stood there and shock
for a second, hearing the man's footsteps rushing upstairs. I
couldn't hear much else, so I walked back to my
car while processing everything. Once I got out of their driveway,
I drove a minute down the road, then pulled over.
I decided it best to call the police and just
give them all the information I had, and asked them
to just do a check up to make sure it
was all okay. When I got back to Pizza Hut,
I told my friends about the unusual situation. They thought
it was odd too, but none of them seemed worried
about it. The rest of my shift went by fast.
When I got home at twelve fifteen, not long after,
I got a call. It was an officer that did
a wellness check on the woman that I said was
at that house. Only he said there was no woman
at all. He described the man, but he was allowed
inside the home and never saw anyone else. The man
said he lived alone and had no idea what woman
I was talking about. I know what I heard, though,
someone else was in that house, and it was definitely
a woman that called to place the order. The fact
that the man was lying about things that I was
one hundred percent sure about made me really uneasy. The
cop told me that there wasn't much else to be
done unless something else came up. It's been a long
time since this all happened, but I still think back
to it. I could be blowing it all out of proportion,
but there's a big part of me that doesn't think so.
I'm a truck driver for a moving company on the
East Coast. We specialize in cross country moving, typically moving
people to the far West Coast, which can take anywhere
from twenty to forty hours depending on the locations. I
only did the driving for the company not any of
the boxing or loading, so the actual job was one
hundred percent just driving and picking up or dropping off
the trailer at the houses. I'd been working with this
company for almost four years at the time. This job
was like every other. I got to the pickup address
and loaded up the trailer full of the customer's belongings.
This was a thirty hour drive in total, which I
would do with two to three short rest stops. The
hardest states to drive through are in the Midwest, specifically
Iowa and Nebraska. There's absolutely nothing there. It's just dead
roads with endless fields of grass beside them. It makes
for a very boring and therefore tiring. As I passed
through the Iowa border into Nebraska, the sun had just
set and I'd been on the road for about twenty hours.
I took a short break already a couple states back,
but was just about ready for another. My eyes were
heavy and I could feel the drowsiness coming in. But
a few more miles down I saw something on the
side of the road. A car was stopped off to
the side of my lane with its headlights on. It
was a narrow road, so I slowed down to carefully
pass As I did, I noticed the exhaust was steaming,
so the car was still running. There was also a
man leaning against the driver door and looking right at me.
I passed by and gave him a nod, but as
I got further down the road, I saw him get
back into the car. It was very strange for someone
to be sitting on the side of an empty road
with a car that still runs. He didn't look like
he was in any sort of trouble. He looked like
he was waiting. I checked my mirrors often, but the
car's headlights disappeared behind me. After a few minutes. I
was a bit more awake now, but my eyes still
felt heavy. Only a mile or so more down the road,
I saw another car. This one was sideways in the
middle of the road, and as I got closer, I
saw another vehicle on the side. It was a large
box van. I wasn't sure exactly of the situation, but
seeing that gave me a bad feeling. I eased into
my brakes, but the car stayed in the middle of
the road, so I was forced to come to a
full stop. I was maybe twenty yards away and could
see multiple men standing along the road, and one man
in front of the car. I'd have to be the
dumbest person in the world to not understand what this was.
At this point, with no better options, I started moving
the truck backward. The men stayed where they were with
this horrifying confidence. Then a light shined behind me and
a car approached, blocking the way back. A man got
out of the car, sprinting at the back of my trailer,
and at the same time, all of the men in
the front started sprinting at me too. In that instant,
my mind went blank and all of my adrenaline took over.
I slammed on the gas as I heard a pop
on the back of the trailer and the doors swung open.
The men in front yelled and tried to stand in
my way, but once they saw I wasn't stopping, they
jumped on the side of the road. I rammed right
into the car, knocking it off the road and completely
destroying it. A few gunshots sound in the distance, but
none hit. I could hear cargo falling out of the
trailer for the next five miles before I was able
to call the police and to meet an officer on
the road. Of course, this was a total mess, but
As it all unfolded, it turned out to be much
more than just a random attack and robbery. When police
arrived at the scene, the car had slammed into was
left behind, being damaged beyond drivable with it. They tracked
down one of the members of the attackers, who gave
up information on the others. They had information on the
rich homeowners that were moving and planned to stop me
and steal all of the belongings with their box van.
They never said what exactly they would have done to
me after they robbed the truck, but I don't think
it's a stretch to assume that it would have been
a lot easier for them to not leave any loose ends.
I was driving for Domino's pizza delivery. It was a
slow night, so I was actually spending a decent amount
of time inside the shop waiting for orders to come
in for me to deliver. Just after ten pm, a
man walked in and came up to the counter. He
looked like he was in his early thirties, but was
extremely sleep deprived and maybe even drunk. My coworker was
at the counter helping him with the order, and I
was standing in the back organizing the pizza boxes. But
after seeing his appearance, I listened in on their conversation.
He seemed timid and uneasy about something as he made
a simple request for a medium pizza, but then he
added on that he'd like it to be delivered, and
then handing my coworker a slip of paper. Right after
the order was sent through, the man walked out. The
paper just had an address written on it, but it
was kind of odd because who wouldn't rem their own address. Also,
it's not every day that you get a customer coming
into the shop to order for delivery to their house. Anyway,
ten minutes later, I boxed up the pizza and got
on the road. It didn't take long for me to
notice a strange car behind me. It was the only
other car on the road, and they were constantly speeding
up and slowing down like they were having trouble staying
at the same speed. Once I saw them swerving too,
the first thing I thought was that they were drunk,
and how the man at the shop looked drunk too.
It seems stupid now, but at the time I really
thought it was just a coincidence. When I got to
the neighborhood, the car behind me, pulled off to the
side of the road and parked. Thirty seconds later, I
pulled into the driveway of what looked like any other
house and stepped up to the front porch. I knocked,
then knocked again, and after a couple minutes of waiting,
someone finally answered. It was a different man from the
one I'd seen at the shop that ordered the pizza.
Speaker 2: I had a Domino's delivery for Matthew.
Speaker 1: The man stared at me with very wide open eyes,
and I noticed that he looked very similar to the
way the other man looked, sleep deprived and drunk. It
took him a few seconds to respond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: Thank you, he said, quietly, reaching out for the pizza.
I gave it to him, and he looked at me
like he was going to say something else, but he didn't.
He just continued with his dull look. I then turned
around and saw a guy in a hood jogging down
the sidewalk just two houses away, but he was looking
right at us. I quickly went back to my car,
and the man at the door stepped out onto the
porch like he was going to follow me. I got
in and started backing out, but the guy in the
hood went right behind my car to block me from leaving.
The other one then started running toward me, and in
the heat of the moment, I just stepped on the
pedal to go and reverse. The guy behind the car
jumped out of the way at the last second, and
both of them started yelling and chasing my car onto
the road. In the street light, it became clear that
the man in the hood was the guy who came
into the pizza shop. With them still running at the
front of my car, though I had to reverse dangerously
fast down the street until I could safely make a
three point turn and get away. I called the cops
and within the hour both men were arrested for attempted robbery.
Their plan was clearly made while drunk, because they thought
that by ordering at the shop, we somehow wouldn't think
it was them because it was a delivery order, even
though we had their name and address. It really made
no sense, but according to the record, they had pulled
multiple robberies before, and one of them resulted in the victory.
I'm getting beaten up in a parking lot for no reason.
Two drunk guys running at me with bad intentions could
have escalated into something horrible, but I was glad to
have gotten away without any harm, and thankfully they won't
be able to do this to anyone else. I used
to work for my best friend's parents restaurant. I did
deliveries for them. It would sometimes help clean tables or
whatever too. The job in itself was fine, but it
felt very uncomfortable to have my friend's parents as my boss.
I thought it wouldn't be too bad after a while,
but it just never got better. They hated every time
something wouldn't go exactly as planned, and they also scheduled
me and my friend on opposite days, so it didn't
even feel like we worked together, which was the whole
point of me taking the job. This happened during my
third and final month working there. It was a regular
night to start getting a few quick deliveries, but it
really slowed down toward the back half of the night.
My friend's dad hated it when it was slow because
I'd be standing around waiting for orders and he'd always
be grumpy about it, even though it wasn't my fault.
Around eight thirty, which was an hour since my last
delivery and thirty minutes until the end of my shift,
he picked up a phone call and I overheard him
say that we could deliver afterwards. He made the food
and handed me the bag to deliver, but when I
searched the address up it was forty minutes away. Of course,
I complained because by then my shift was over in
fifteen minutes and this delivery would take nearly an hour
and a half, but he didn't care. I could tell
he was just upset about me waiting around, which again
was not my fault. But after a brief argument, I
did as he said. Forty minutes was pretty far away
for our small town, so I had no idea where
this address was. By the time I was two minutes away,
it was just before ten pm. There were no houses
nearby from what I could see, until the last minute
of the drive, when it had me turned down a
small street that led to a row of maybe six houses.
They all looked old and outdated, and they were the
only houses I'd seen in the last five minutes of driving.
I slowly passed by each house and looked at their
numbers until I found the right one. Then I parked
on the street right next to the driveway. I'm not
gonna lie this place gave me some spooky vibes. It
was so far from everything, and the houses themselves were
just old and creepy. I got out and brought the
bag up to the doorstep, then rang the doorbell and
nobody came to the door, so I tried knocking. It
was late and I wanted to get this over with.
I was getting impatient as I waited. I looked around.
The street had no cars on it or in any
of the driveways, and none of the actual lights were
on inside any.
Speaker 2: Of the houses.
Speaker 1: I carried the bag back to my car and called
the customer's cell. They didn't pick up, so I just
sat in my car and tried to think of what
to do next. They hadn't paid for the food yet,
so I couldn't just leave it on their doorstep. Then
I saw a light move around inside the house. I
got out and saw the light move through the downstairs
windows and over to the front door. Then it turned off.
A second later, the door opened. There was a young
man early twenties, standing in the doorway, holding a large
flashlight in one hand and a grocery bag in the other.
I walked up and asked if he had ordered the food.
He nodded and apologized for taking so long to answer
the door. I said it was all right and tried
to hand him the bag, but he just held up
both of his hands to show me they were full,
then asked if i'd kindly put the food on the
kitchen table for him. I wasn't sure if he was
joking or not at first, because he easily could have
just put the flashlight or grocery bag down for a second,
but then I realized he was serious. I peeked around him,
and from the short entryway, I could tell that there
was something off about this place. It was dusty all over,
and it looked empty. Once I saw that, and thought
about the flashlight being used instead of the regular house lights,
I was almost sure that this place was a vacant house.
The man was still looking at me and waiting for
a response. Sorry, I'm actually in a rush.
Speaker 2: If you could just pay really quick, then I'll leave
the bag right here on your porch.
Speaker 1: He didn't like that answer, and he showed it with
his face. He set down the grocery and took one
step out of the doorway and onto the porch. I
backed up so as to not be too close to him.
There was something in his eyes that told me he
was about to do something, and I wasn't going to
wait for whatever that was to happen. I dropped the
bag and sprinted for my car, driving away as the
man watched me intently from the porch. I was shaking
for most of the drive back, unsure of what could
have just happened. Of course, though, when I told my
friend's dad about what happened, all he seemed to care
about was that I didn't make the man pay. For
that reason, I just quit right there on the spot.
I knew my friend would be upset, but I'd had
enough of his parents being dixed to me for doing
nothing wrong. After that, that was pretty heated, and was
thinking more about that than I was about the man
who lured me to a vacant house and likely tried
to rob me or even worse. Being so distracted, I
never called the police, not until it was too late.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: Thankfully I wasn't dumb enough to go inside the house, though,
because if I had, I probably never would have returned
from that delivery. I'd drive a van for work, delivering
products to a few family owned stores around my city
on a night. Just four months ago, I was driving
my route between three stores to do some after hour deliveries.
It was about eleven PM and I had just finished
the last delivery for the night. From there, the warehouse
I had to drop the van off was thirty minutes away.
I drove for maybe five minutes until a car pulled
up behind me at an intersection. There were no other
cars out, just me and them. When the light turned green,
I started driving, and it wasn't until a few more
minutes down the road that I realized they were still
right behind me. I was in a big, slow van,
so most people would just go around me, but they didn't.
I wasn't worried or anything, but it was odd. As
we continued driving, their head lights steadily got brighter and brighter,
until they were so close that the light was being
blocked by the back of my van. They had to
be just a foot or two away from my bumper.
The lane next to us was open, so they could
easily just go around, but instead they chose to tailgate me,
which then started making me nervous. I slowed down to
a stop sign and was going to turn just to
get away from them, but just as I stopped, the
car behind me bumped into my van. The crash wasn't bad,
but it was enough to shake the whole van and
push me forward a bit, which I knew had to
cause some damage. I put my van in park and
unbuckled about to get out to see the damage, but
a man was already at my window. He was smiling
and motioning to talk to me. I opened the door,
and as I stepped out, I saw two more guys
at the back of my van, both looking at me.
The man started to give excuses as we walked over
to look at the bumper, but it became obvious that
he was very drunk. His words were hard to make out,
and he didn't seem very bothered about crashing into me
at all. The other guys looked intoxicated too, just from
how they were moving, but I didn't know for sure.
My van and his car looked a lot worse than
I thought. I asked the man for his insurance and
went to get mine, but when I got back, I
realized none of them had moved. I asked again for
his insurance, but all of them just looked at me
without saying anything. There was this moment of me looking
at them as they stared at me in silence, before
my heart started racing. I turned to run back to
my van, but instantly I heard all of their footsteps.
Speaker 2: Coming up behind me.
Speaker 1: I didn't even make it to the door before one
of them grabbed me and shoved me against the side
of the van. The one holding me was making threats
while the others went back and forth piling up everything
in their car. After a minute of having my head
pressed against the side, he shoved me away and started
forcing me to walk toward their car. The other guys
finished taking what they could and got in the car,
telling the man behind me to hurry up. As he
opened the back door and tried pushing me into the
back seat, I knew that if I let him get
me in that car, I would likely never be seen again.
I put all of my strength into fighting back, doing
everything I could to make it as difficult as possible
to get me inside. After a twenty second struggle, he
tossed me away and got in himself. Then they drove off.
I got up and ran to get my phone from
the center console, then called the police. The men who
attacked me couldn't be identified and still haven't been, and
it was hard to say if it was a one
time drunk attack or something they had done before. What
they planned to do by bringing me in the car
with them is also a mystery, but I think we
all know what would have been the most likely outcome